1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a lottery gaming system which provides control of digital purchase and play of lottery games on mobile phone and interactive television devices including a play responsibly feature.
2. Description of Related Art
Pre-paid cards have been used to link to a lottery game such as a state run Pick 4, Pick 6 or the like. U.S. Pat. No. 6,134,309, issued to one of the inventors of the present disclosure, describes a pre-paid phone card system in which a user purchases a pre-paid phone card for a fixed fee which entitles the user to a set amount of long distance service and a promotional lottery ticket. The existing lottery system is used to activate the phone card and produce the promotional ticket.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2005/0075160 describes a pre-paid account lottery system. A plurality of lottery cards are distributed to at least one lottery agent. Each of the lottery cards has a unique identification code disposed thereon and is associated with a predefined monetary amount. A communication identifying the unique identification code of a first selected card is received, and a user account associated with the identification code is established having a balance equivalent to the predefined monetary amount of the first selected card. A first chosen play for a lottery game is received and associated with the user account. A cost of the first chosen play is deducted from the balance of the user account, and a remaining balance is available for making at least one subsequent play. If the first chosen play is a winner, a winning monetary amount is credited to the user account. The winning monetary amount may be redeemed upon presentation of the first selected card. The system allows the user to make lottery plays using funds credited to the user's account.
Real-time lotto-type games in an interactive wireless environment have been described. U.S. Pat. No. 7,163,459 describes a wireless station to play a real-time lottery game electronically. A betting service provider maintains security and a win/loss determination on a system apart from the wireless station. A debit for each game ticket selected is taken from an account at the betting service provider. If the user wins, a certain amount of money is credited to the betting service account. The credit can be made in the form of the issue of new lottery game tickets with or without additional credit to the users account. This system cannot be used with present lottery systems which control the purchase of lottery tickets at a lottery agent.
Conventional main lottery central systems take orders for numbers games, validate winning tickets and allow lottery tickets to be printed at lottery agents. It is not desirable for the main lottery system to receive communications other than ticket purchases and validations because of the chance that the system could be slowed down during peak lottery demand times or security could be affected. Main Central Lottery Systems do not allow direct player access.
It is desirable to provide a digital lottery game control system, separate from the main lottery central system, for controlling the purchase, activation and use of pre-paid lottery voucher for digital purchase and play of a predetermined number of electronic lottery tickets on a mobile phone or interactive television device thereby allowing direct player access; recording transactions associated with the pre-paid lottery voucher; and posting any winnings that the electronic ticket may be entitled to on the pre-paid lottery voucher for redemption by an authorized lottery redemption agent.